Social divisions

The landscape of Guatemalan society came into even clearer focus for me through conversations I had with one of my Spanish teachers. She talked about key divisions in Guatemalan society:

-a three-way racial and cultural division among (1) Spaniards; (2) Ladinos or mestizos; and (3) indigenous people. Overlapping with this are geographic divisions between urban and rural areas and among different regions of the country.

-a division between men and women that occasionally became obvious during the Guatemala City gathering.

-a political division between the Right and Left that was most obvious during the quarter-century war when the military was linked with the Right and the guerrillas with the Left but is still evident today as the current president (a former commander of an Army special forces unit) and the previous president (apparently involved with the guerillas) were on opposite sides during the war (even though both are apparently Spaniards and the center-left former president is a Mayan priest)

-a four-way religious division among Roman Catholics, evangelical Protestants (including Presbyterians), Pentecostals, and adherents of Mayan spirituality, along with Garifunas who practice Afro-Caribbean folk religions or even Rastafarianism; Jews; and Muslims (with overlap among some of these).

My teacher talked about the difficulties that would-be upwardly mobile indigenous women would face. Not only would they need to change their dress and their language, but they would also need to change more deeply engrained cultural styles and probably also their facial and other physical appearance, which make-up, for example, could probably only alter ever so slightly.

A continuation of conflicts between communities in Izabal and the nickel mine company – now essentially in Russian hands – (and with which the government – including local government - is apparently allied) – brings into focus many of these divisions. While the nickel mine company and other industries continue to pollute Lake Izabal, the company has also become interested in the road that runs through the land claimed by the Hurricane Mitch community (composed of Presbyterians, essentially refugees) now again of Panzos. This fall the company tried to make a land grab. Seeking to avoid the violence that helped shut down the presbytery’s congregation in El Chupon (and may have killed at least one Presbyterian), the company asked Gerardo again to broker a deal, which, in this case, involved the community (no doubt fearful about what might happen if they stuck to their guns, so to speak) splitting the land with the company and essentially trading part of the land for the company agreeing to help build a school, church, and soccer field.

(We reminded Gerardo and Pablo about similar conflicts in Eastern Kentucky. They told us that the company is just exploring the possibility of mining nearby the Mitch community – that no actual mining is planned yet.)

At one point Gerardo suggested that we pray for calming and improvement of the situation in Panzos, since there is no way of knowing if the company will follow through on its end of the bargain. The deed transfers are slated to be finalized this week.

Gerardo said he also has a dream of reviving the El Estor interdenominational ministerial alliance and focusing its efforts and reaching out to workers of the mining company and locals in conflict with the company, as well to the company in hopes that it will agree to hire and train locals (a dangerous project, to make such a request, he said).  In the mean time, area Presbyterians will continue to pray for both the company and the people in the community in Panzos.

To me, this conflict – big business with allies among foreign companies and the Spaniard- and Ladino-dominated government vs. indigenous small farmers and their families – over land, in this case, really epitomizes the social divisions across the country.

Incidentally, Pablo and Gerardo explained why there are two different spelling for their cultural group (Q’eqchi’ and K’ekchi’). There are two Q’eqchi’ alphabets, one older and one newer. Some signs in El Estor are in the newer K’ekchi’ alphabet, while the Bibles Gerardo and we bought for some of the Estoreño church women were in the older Q’eqchi’ alphabet.

-Perry